Tag: Job Search

I had coffee with a stranger today. Well, actually, tea. And it was agonizing, my stomach was in knots, I kept checking my phone (before hand – hoping that it might be cancelled and I could go home), and am utterly exhausted now from the effort. A 30 minute tea at Starbucks.

I am bold, brash, and brave, and shy, vulnerable and anxious. Once I am comfortable and you get to know me – I tell it like it is, I call you out on bullshit, and I am usually the one who speaks up when no one else does. But if I don’t know you, or am not comfortable in the situation, I am crippled with anxiety, I start to sweat from my right armpit in particular, and I miss opportunities.

This is a “reverse bell curve personality” – there is no middle ground me with. I do have a psychology degree, and so therefore pretty sure this is not a clinical or recognized diagnosis (especially as I made it up). It doesn’t appear to be treatable except with more stranger tea. But I am sure I am not the only one who suffers from it – though the right armpit thing seems weird to me.

I’ll have to get comfortable and ask someone about it.

March 14th, 2016 Extra-Ordinary: I didn’t die. I guess I have to do it again. Urg.

I was a smart kid. I always did well in grade school and I found it easy to navigate the world’s requirements. I actually looked forward to taking tests and exams because it allowed me to prove to myself (and others) how smart I was. Hey! I said I was smart, not modest. Anyways, I eventually learned that I wasn’t all that and a bag of chips. And became much easier to live with in the process, I’m sure. You’d have to ask my mom.

I was contacted on Friday afternoon by a recruiter to request a second interview. She warned me, the second interview wasn’t going to be easy like the first – they were really going to “grill” me. Hmmm. I accepted the second interview and set it for Monday at 11:00 am. As I was driving to the interview, the recruiter called me again to let me know the HR person called to warn there would be a lot of managers in the room – “Don’t get intimidated”.

And they tried. The questions were intelligent, appropriate, and normally perhaps difficult. But I’ll tell you this – once you’ve worked at a well-managed company that eventually went into receivership during the midst of unprecedented upheaval in your industry (automotive) and watched the American financial system collapse, there isn’t much that can faze you. And afterall, I am a Materials Manager and that’s was they were looking for – its not like I had to name all the bones in the human body.

May 14th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: That was no grilling – that was a tanning bed.

Maintenance May Day 14:
Packed a healthy low-calorie lunch to eat on the drive home from the interview (body).
Asked the President of the company why there was a sign in their lobby that Read “31 Years of Excellence. 1980-2011”. Did the excellence stop? (career or not?)
Extremely courteous and friendly to the cashier at Shopper’s Drug Mart who was having a terrible day. (soul)

Really? I seem on edge? Maybe it is because you are kinda of weird and odd, and don’t look anything like your Linked In picture. (note to real estate agents, Linked In users and others, you are not helping yourself when you use your 20-year-old “best picture taken of me ever” on your business card etc. It only just weirds the rest of us out when we see you in person and it doesn’t match) And so began my first meeting in Burlington to talk to two recruiters. I took his advice and for 10 before my next meeting, I sat in my car listening to Schubert’s German Mass. It calmed me down, yes, but I think the couple of guys having a conversation near me thought I was a little odd. I mean, who hangs around in business attire listening to Schubert at high volume in a car? Well . . now that I think about it. . . perhaps a lot of sales people waiting for meetings. Maybe Metallica instead of Schubert.

Anyways, the second meeting went much better, and I was much more comfortable with him and his set-up. He was an old guy who rambled on about things and kvetched to me about the bad habits of employers a bit, but was certainly a nice fellow who seemed to genuinely want to help me find a fulfilling career. He’s even going to feature me in his Newsletter.

Friday hadn’t been a day I was looking for to. We need to renew our passports, and beyond that I had to drive to Burlington to meet with these fellows. Both could be fraught with inconvenience – waiting, terrible logistics, traffic, getting lost, etc. I don’t do well with inconvenience.

I set my alarm for 8:15, but awoke feeling refreshed at 8:00. We rolled out about 8:15 and made it to the Passport office about 8:25. There was a notice on the door letting us know that the location would be closing TODAY end of day and moving to the big shopping center. Phew. A friendly security card directed us to the pre-screening room to have our applications reviewed before the actual Passport Office opened. Then we waited for about 2 minutes – fourth in line – and the another friendly security guard directed us to the office – now open. There were six wickets and SIX tellers working (please other agencies take note of this simple math), so being fourth in line meant being first. It took the woman 10 minutes to process our applications – and let us know we would receive them by May 11th by registered mail.

Today I was up early and off to Toronto for errands and to meet with a recruiter. Recruiters are your friends, but they are not your friends. Recruiters get paid when they successfully place someone in a position. It’s a comparatively large payment, but nonetheless, they are not paid until the company offers their candidate a job and the candidate accepts it. So, for financial reasons they can be pressured into pushing a square peg into a round hole. This is similar to anyone who works on commission – real estate agents, travel agents, etc. But good recruiters recognize they are only costing long-term success to put the wrong person in the wrong place for a short-term pay-out.

So, keep your wits about you when visiting a recruiter. Be clear in your expectations, say no if it is not right, make the recruiter look good if you can and listen to their advice if they are generous enough to give it (after all, they don’t get paid by you).

About 1/2 hour into the start of my trip, I received an e-mail from one of my former bosses. I um . . . pulled over, of course . . to read the email and discovered he was looking for a 1 year contract Production Planning Manager in Orillia. Am I interested in discussing it?

Let’s recap! I am driving from Huntsville, Ontario to Toronto and back again which requires me to drive directly through Orillia twice. I have interview clothes with me, a copy of my résumé, business cards, a cell phone with internet access for company research and time within the standard work day. Could I be any more prepared than that? I wrote back and suggested that I drop by at 4 pm to discuss in person. He agreed.

I met with the recruiter (resulting in an excellent contact for my husband), swung by the Low Carb Grocery (hello, low carb and high protein bagels, yum), engaged in a lively text conversation about excellent job interview news from my best friend (You go, Lisa!), got my prescriptions refilled (take that Emile’s company!), had the mop on my head tamed (hello stylish self), and then headed to Orillia to check out this potential job and then finally dropped off forgotten Crocs in Gravenhurst (don’t leave your stuff at my house, kid!).

You can see why The Daily EO suffered last night. Phew.

April 25th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Not even a poker in the fire at 9 am, a contract job offer at 5 pm. Huh?